We’ve just come from the space-age headquarters of McLaren, which is tucked away in a suburb of London. The stunning facility houses both McLaren’s racing teams as well as McLaren Automotive. It’s the latter that we will be talking about today, having scrounged, interviewed, and pestered everyone we could find. Fortunately, no Bothan spies died to bring us this information. Here’s what we learned.

McLaren MP4-12C Spider

The image at the top of this post is our computer-generated rendering, but the car it depicts is real. Based on our intel, McLaren will unveil the roadster version of its MP4-12C sports car later this year. It’ll most likely be called the MP4-12C Spider. Other than lid-removal, don’t expect any other changes for this model. If you think a high-revving twin-turbocharged, 593-hp V-8 isn’t enough, we’ll need to ask who sponsors your F1 team. Read more and see another rendering of the car here.

V-12s? Don’t Count On It

That 3.8-liter V-8 is damn good, and it’ll form the core of future McLaren models. The company spent a considerable amount of money in co-designing that engine with Ricardo, a British automotive engineering firm. Geoff Grose, the head of vehicle development at McLaren, tells us that this engine was designed to be the centerpiece of “more than just one car.” With his emphasis—and the emphasis of others at McLaren—on this being an eight-cylinder engine, we don’t expect to see a V-12 in any McLaren models in the near future. That doesn’t mean, however, that the upcoming F1 successor will be limited to 593 hp, though. The engine has been designed to be flexible and to have longevity in its application. With engineers from the racing teams crossing over to the road-car division, we doubt McLaren will have any trouble raising the output of the V-8 to desired levels.

F1 Successor and a Full Product Line

Above, an empty—and cavernous—part of McLaren’s sci-fi-ish factory. We’ll give you a full tour of the place in an upcoming story, but the vacant space above calls for our attention today: It’s where the F1 successor (spy photos here) will be built. Because no robots and no powered assembly lines are used at McLaren, it won’t take very long to tool up for the next supercar. It’s possible that a concept version of the car will debut this year, but we think a 2013 reveal is more likely. Expect it to have conventional side-by-side seating (unlike the 1+2 layout of the original McLaren F1), V-8 power, a dual-clutch transmission, and loads of carbon fiber. For heaven’s sake, McLaren produces carbon fiber on the premises for use in its Formula 1 cars.

But beyond the F1, there are more products planned. McLaren will have an actual line of vehicles, and the MP4-12C, F1 successor, and any others will have regular (by supercar standards) product life cycles. There won’t be SUVs or sedans—this is a racing company with a road-car division—but we think it’s likely that more than two vehicles will wear the McLaren badge in the coming years.